Transportation Staff To Be Cut Back

February 11, 1987|By MICHAEL LASALANDRA, Staff Writer

District Chief Bill Fowler said Tuesday that the state Department of Transportation will emphasize ``managing`` more than ``doing`` under a reorganization plan that will cut the agency`s staff in half over the next four years.

``We`ll be doing more work through contractors than with our own employees,`` said Fowler in a talk to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce.

``The intent is to streamline the DOT,`` he said, ``to make it a smaller, more efficient organization. There are too many people, too much checking other people`s work. We spend too much time sending memos to each other. The new secretary (Kaye Henderson) has plans to turn it around.``

Fowler said that in the past, responsibility has been spread out to the point that it was hard to hold anyone accountable for a decision.

Now, he said, the idea will be to ``find people who are responsible`` and give them the authority they need to make decisions. ``If they abuse it, they`ll be punished or removed,`` he added.

Fowler said the streamlining plan ordered by Henderson will give the department ``more bang for our buck. It will make us a smoother, faster operating organization.``

In his talk at the Holiday Inn West on State Road 7, Fowler explained the reasoning behind the department`s decision to rebuild Interstate 95 at the same time that many other major highways, including Florida`s Turnpike and State Road 7, will be under construction.

``It`s sort of a blitz,`` he said. ``We want to get as much on the ground as quickly as possible so you can use it. It`s something we all have to live through.``

Fowler also said that when the dust settles and the nearly $2 billion worth of roadwork is completed -- sometime in the early 1990s -- Broward County`s traffic problems will remain because of the expected growth in population.

He said that in order for the situation to be improved ``people will have to change their habits.`` Specifically, he said, they will have to learn to use public transportation and companies will have to stagger their work hours.

Eventually, Fowler said, congestion will slow the county`s phenomenal growth as newcomers find other areas in which to settle.

Although the State Comprehensive Plan Committee recently recommended a 10- cent increase in the gas tax this year to pay for needed transportation improvements, Fowler said the department will not seek an increase in this year`s legislative session. He said an increase will be sought next year, however.

Fowler warned that the I-95 widening project, which will get under way next year and will continue into 1991, will increase the average commuting time by 50 to 100 percent.

``If it now takes you 30 minutes to get to work, expect it will increase to 45 minutes or an hour,`` he said.